Visit Harar & surroundings: Historic fortified city, camel market & elephant sanctuary.

Dire Dawa, Harar, Babile Elephant Sanctuary, Babile Camel Market, Koreme- Argoba village

Busy street in Harar’s Jagol

The walls surrounding this sacred Muslim city were built between the 13th and 16th centuries. Harar Jugol (Jagol refers to the old city) is said to be the fourth holiest city of Islam, with 82 mosques, three of which date from the 10th century, and 102 shrines. But its the townhouses, with their exceptional interior design constitute the most spectacular part of Harar’s cultural heritage.

To get to Harar catch a short 1h10m flight from Addis to Dire Dawa. You can also choose to go by road with an overnight stop in Awash Park, or perhaps if very adventurous catch the train that goes to Dire Dawa from Addis.  There are many flights to choose from, but perhaps the late morning flight is ann conformable time: flight ET248 departs at 11:35am; arriving in Dire Dawa at 12:45pm. You will be met at outside the airport (in the parking area – they can’t get inside) by your guide and driver.  Stop for some lunch at one of the town’s restaurants before have a visit the old part of Dire Dawa with its wide tree lined boulevards, and the historic  French railway station. Then head on to Harar, check in to guesthouse and drop luggage to your room. We have selected the guesthouse at the museum in the old town, but there is only one room!  So alternative include local houses in the old town where several families run guesthouses or a hotel outside the old town.

Feeding Hyenas in Harar

That first evening head off see one of Harar’s greatest attractions, the ritual feeding of hyena by the ‘hyena men’ of Harar. This has something that has a long history.  As night falls (beginning around 6.30pm), two sets of ‘hyena men’ set themselves up outside the city walls: one east of Erer Gate and the other north of Fallana Gate. The ritual starts by calling the hyena by name. There are a few nights in the year where due to  festivals where animals are slaughtered for feasts, Hyenas may not be easger to come and be fed!)  After this feeding – maybe time to head for your own ….  perhaps dinner at one of the hotels or restaurants in town.

Our itinerary is 3 nights in Harar the order of visiting will depend on the day of the week but we will  arrange time to visit the sites in the town.  These include your guesthouse museum  – Rimbaud house. This is an intriguing old house where Arthur Rimbaud, a famous french poet lived between 1880-1891. It has become a museum with pictures of how Harar was in Rimbaud’s day and some of his works.

Other places to visit include Ras Teferi house, (the Emperor Haile Selassie, formerly Ras Teferi, came from Harar) the cultural house museum in Harar city and Jugol wall, as well as exploring the old streets and the seeing some of the old. mosques (from outside).

One early morning, we will take you on a visit to the camel market at Babile takes place on Mondays and Thursdays and is well worth a visit to see these exotic animals in the arid land, surrounded by colourful people. Our a driver pick you up- early in town as you need to be there in the morning to see it busy. We will return later in the. Day possibly by way of a list to the Argoba village – Koreme. A clifftop village, 19km southeast of Harar above the Erer Valley. After the visit, return back to the guesthouse in Harar for overnight stay.

Elephants in Babile (curtesy of Born Free)

On another day we will take you out to see the Babile Elephants’ sanctuary. Of course sightings are not guaranteed, but in this landscape you can also see dik-dik, warthog, gazelles, bushbuck, baboons etc, and there are carnivores including, lions, leopards, hyenas, and jackals. This protected area has been struggling with poaching and loss of habitat, but is a last refuge for this elephant that once roamed the Horn of Africa – read more here. It encompasses a plateau, as well as the lowlands of the valleys of the Erer, Daketa, Fafen, Gobele and Borale Rivers; all being tributaries of the Shabelle River.

At the end of your stay we will provide a transfer back to Dire Dawa airport for a return flight from Dire Dawa to Addis, perhaps catching ET225 departing at 4:50pm, getting back into Addis at 6:00pm.